536 
mixed with the rain. On another occasion, 
when a storm of wind from the SW. had 
blown about 100-miles across the land to 
reach Manchester, he found about one grain 
in 400 of the rain to consist of sea-water. 
The Quantity of Blood taken into the 
heart, and expelled therefrom into the arte- 
ries, by successive pulsations, in the course 
of twenty-four hours, has been lately esti- 
mated, by Dr. Kidd, at 243 hogsheads in 
an ordinary man, and 8,000 hogsheads in a 
large whale !—So that the whole mass of 
blood in such a man, reckoning it at thirty- 
five pints, passes 288 times through his 
heart daily, or once in five minutes, by 375 
pulsations, each expelling about 13 ounce 
of blood, or about three table-spoonfuls 
each pulse! 
The Ability of the Walrus to climb steep 
surfaces of ice, and smooth high rocks, 
which has often astonished polar navigators, 
has been found by Sir Everard Home to be 
owing to their hind feet, or flippers, being 
furnished with a cupping-like apparatus, 
similar, but on a gigantic scale, to those in 
the feet of flies, which enable the latter to 
walk on upright glass, or even on a smooth 
ceiling, supported by the atmosphere press- 
ing against the vacuum they are enabled to 
form under the cavities of their feet. It is 
the same, also, with the Geco, a rat-like 
animal, which, in India, runs up and down 
the faces of the smoothest walls, in chase 
of flies and insects.—The bones of the 
walrus’ flipper, in a surprising manner, 
represent a gigantic human hand, capable 
of spanning twenty-eight inches, or more. 
Although these animals sometimes weigh a 
ton and a half, there seems little reason to 
doubt their capability of supporting this 
great weight by pedalian suction, against a 
mass of ice.— Phil. Trans. 
The Process of Mummification, by which 
the bodies of great numbers of the inhabi- 
tants of Upper Egypt, who lived more than 
three thousand years ago, have been pre- 
served until our day, and seem yet in no 
danger of decay through an equally long 
period, has been discovered and imitated 
by Dr. Granville, who, more than three 
‘years ago, prepared seyeral specimens of 
imitative mummies, some of which bear 
the closest resemblance to the Egyptian, 
and haye withstood putrefaction perfectly, 
though exposed to all the vicissitudes of 
our yariable climate, without any covering, 
or other precautionary measures: and this 
he has effected, simply by the thorough 
impregnation of every part of the subject, 
hard or soft, with common bees’-wax! Be- 
sides which essential ingredient, myrrh, 
, resin, bitumen, and even tannin, were 
used occasionally by the Egyptian mummi- 
fiers, the priests, probably; but none of 
these ingredients, jointly or singly, appear 
to have sufficient preservative properties, 
without the bees’-wax, to make a perfect 
and durable mummy. 
Spirit of Philosophical Discovery. 
(Jaly 1, 
Sir A. Edmonstone brought from Egypt, 
in 1821, and presented to Dr. Granville, a 
very perfect mummy, which, on unwinding 
its very numerous bandages, presented the 
body of a female, so perfect, as to admit of 
measures being taken of its stature and 
proportions in every part, and which turn 
out to be, almost precisely, those which 
Camper and Winckelmann haye assigned 
to the prototype of ideal beauty, the statue 
of the Venus de Medicis. This unique 
subject was also found capable of dissec- 
tion by Dr. Granville, in the presence of 
several medical and scientific men, by which 
the age, and the disease of which the lady 
died (ovarian dropsy), after having borne 
children, were clearly demonstrated; and 
the heart, lungs, diaphragm, one of the 
kidneys, with the ureter, gall-bladder, and 
part of the intesfines, and the sac that con- 
tained the morbid fiuid, during, the life of 
this most interesting subject, were shewn 
to the Royal Society of London, at the 
time of reading before it the very full ac- 
count, whieh will, ere long, be published in 
the Phil. Trans. 
By way of proof that bees’-wax formed 
the preserving principle in this mummy, 
the Doctor separated one of the nates, or 
divisions of the. fleshy seat of his subject, 
and wholly deprived the same of the wax, 
by ebullition and maceration; and which, 
in consequence, soon after began to putrefy. 
This being stopped, it now appears like the 
preparation of a recent specimen of this 
part of the body. 5 
That many Sponges consist in great part 
of Silica, in longitudinally-placed, transpa- 
rent, fusiform spicule, has recently been 
discovered by Mr. J. E. Gray, of the Bri- 
tish Museum, and published in No. L. of 
the ‘ Annals of Philosophy.” And the 
interesting fact is established, that the few 
species of sponges which grow in fresh 
water are found to be composed of fine 
silicious spicule, united into fibres by a 
cartilaginous substance, equally with the 
marine sponges. ‘The hard part (axis) or 
bone of Gorgona flabellum, and of G. Bria- 
reus, are also found to consist, in part, of 
spicule of silica: although, hitherto, silex 
was deemed to form no part of zoophytes, 
and considered as very rarely entering into 
the composition of animal substances. 
Ammoniacal Chromate of Copper, in solu- 
tion in water, of a clear and beautiful deep- 
green colour, unchangeable in strong sun- 
shine, as in the show-window of an apothe- 
cary’s shop, for any length of time, provided 
evaporation is prevented by aclose stopper, 
may, according to M. Vuaflart, be prepared, 
by adding the solution of chromate of potash 
to ammoniacal sulphate of copper. When 
evaporation takes place, and the ammonia 
‘escapes, a reddish-brown liquor is produced, 
‘in place of the green fluid above described. 
The Red Colour of Crystallized Felspar, 
from some localities, as at the north = 
' the 
